UFC, WEC to Merge in 2011

Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White on Thursday
announced that the WEC will merge with the UFC in 2011.

“It's time,” White said during a UFC conference call. “As we
continue to grow globally, we’re doing enough fights to fold [the
WEC] into the UFC. It’s always been in the cards to grow this sport
and add every weight class.”

All WEC talent will be retained, White said, including the 135- and
145-pound champions. WEC featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo will
be recognized as the new UFC champion, and the same will go for the
winner of Dominick
Cruz’s title defense against Scott
Jorgensen at the promotion’s final event, WEC 53, in December.
White also confirmed that Aldo will defend his new UFC title on
Jan. 1 at UFC 125 “Resolution,” though his opponent was still not
set in stone.

“[The lighter champions will be] main and co-main events. As we
grow and go into new countries, you’re going to see a lot of talent
coming into those divisions,” said White. “A lot of people haven’t
seen how exciting these guys are. I’d like to [eventually] have a
125-pound championship, too.”

But what about the WEC lightweights? The UFC already has its own
155-pound title and a deep stable of fighters to go with it. White
said he intends to fold all the WEC lightweights into the UFC
talent pool, unifying the two belts with a miniature tournament of
sorts.

Maynard and Edgar will fight at UFC 125 on New Year’s Day. Soon,
the speculation as to how the 155-pounders from the WEC will fare
in the big show will finally become reality.

“The way it works is you win fights, and you stick around. Or if
you’re incredibly exciting, you stick around for a while,” said
White. “We’re looking for great fighters and exciting fighters. If
you’re one of those, you’re going to stick around.”

Also of note was White’s assertion that the UFC’s Octagon would not
decrease in size to accommodate the smaller fighters. Additionally,
White announced that the UFC just penned a new contract with Versus
to air four events on the network in 2011. While technically that
doubles the UFC’s exposure from 2010, the loss of several WEC
events on Versus actually decreases the total number of Zuffa-owned
shows airing on the network.

“It’s a positive. We got [more] UFC on Versus,” White said. “We’re
not looking at it like we lost two fights [per year]. If you ask
Versus, they were happy with the WEC’s ratings, but the UFC is
going to pull bigger ratings.”

Job security is not exclusive to the WEC’s fighters, White said, as
the employees behind the scenes will also have their services
retained. This includes WEC General Manager Reed Harris and
matchmaker Sean Shelby.

“Every employee from the WEC is staying with the UFC,” White said.
“We have so much work to do that nobody is going to be sitting
around.”